In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe white missionaries from Great Britain come to the various Ibo/Igbo villages in Nigeria. Many men and women from those villages are converted to the christian faith in the process. Also, the leaders of the village slowly began to lose power and influence as the missionaries began to convert more people and build more churches and buildings. Besides the fact that they converted so many to their cause, their more advanced technology also easily allowed them to take over.
The missionaries first began to arrive in chapter fifteen, when the main character's (Okonkwo) friend Obierika visits him in his second year of exile. A little ways into their conversation, a village named Abame was talked about. Obierika tells Okonkwo that it had been wiped out after they had killed a white man that had appeared. Two years later, Obierika pays another visit to tell Okonkwo that the missionaries had arrived in their village of Umuofia. Obierika tells him of the people that were converted by the missionaries; "None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu" (143). Efulefu are people who were basically not respected by the clan and held no titles. This is how most colonial takeovers are started. Those who feel rejected and underappreciated by their society look to the missionaries who welcome them with open arms. As more and more people join them, they gain more influence in the form of manpower, as well as changes the convert's viewpoints to that of their own. Essentially it steals the hard power and soft power of the village, until the Ibo/Igbo find that they are no longer in control. An example of someone who felt rejected (which we had seen throughout the entire novel) and was then converted was Okonkwo's own son, Nwoye; "What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter's son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia" (143).
The slow and total takeover of the villages in Things Fall Apart was due mostly to the missionaries' ability to convert so many of the lower class of the Ibo/Igbo. As people left their original society to join the missionaries, those who refused to join, and even those who did join, found themselves being subjugated and controlled. The biggest reason for this was that there were simply not enough people left to defend their way of life.
The missionaries first began to arrive in chapter fifteen, when the main character's (Okonkwo) friend Obierika visits him in his second year of exile. A little ways into their conversation, a village named Abame was talked about. Obierika tells Okonkwo that it had been wiped out after they had killed a white man that had appeared. Two years later, Obierika pays another visit to tell Okonkwo that the missionaries had arrived in their village of Umuofia. Obierika tells him of the people that were converted by the missionaries; "None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu" (143). Efulefu are people who were basically not respected by the clan and held no titles. This is how most colonial takeovers are started. Those who feel rejected and underappreciated by their society look to the missionaries who welcome them with open arms. As more and more people join them, they gain more influence in the form of manpower, as well as changes the convert's viewpoints to that of their own. Essentially it steals the hard power and soft power of the village, until the Ibo/Igbo find that they are no longer in control. An example of someone who felt rejected (which we had seen throughout the entire novel) and was then converted was Okonkwo's own son, Nwoye; "What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter's son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia" (143).
The slow and total takeover of the villages in Things Fall Apart was due mostly to the missionaries' ability to convert so many of the lower class of the Ibo/Igbo. As people left their original society to join the missionaries, those who refused to join, and even those who did join, found themselves being subjugated and controlled. The biggest reason for this was that there were simply not enough people left to defend their way of life.
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